X would like your deets, please.
No, but seriously, X is launching Lead Gen Ads, a new ad product that lets advertisers add calls to action like “Book Appointment” directly to their ads and collect a user’s contact information without making them leave X.
It’s a simple idea, but a smart one. The product is “coming soon.”
Why This Matters:
X seems increasingly focused on making its ad platform more useful to small and midsize businesses. That makes sense. SMB advertisers are generally more focused on performance and customer acquisition than broader brand safety risk, which continues to keep some larger advertisers away from X (or more skittish).
Lead Gen Ads, once available, fit squarely into that strategy. Instead of sending someone off-platform to fill out a form, an advertiser can collect contact information directly within X, removing friction between seeing an ad and becoming a lead.
It also follows a steady stream of performance-centered updates from X, including new tools to help SMBs create and analyze campaigns and the ability to boost organic mentions. Individually, none is revolutionary. But together, they make X a more capable direct-response ad platform.
Experts React:
Monique Pintarelli, X’s Head of Global Advertising, talked up the product in a post, calling it the platform’s “most requested ad product.”
Our Take:
It’s good to see some momentum from X on the adtech and ad product side. The platform feels like it may be finding its footing, especially after a broader feed and timeline update that seemed to reinvigorate users and the platform overall. (We are not trying to jinx you guys, we swear.)
Improving the user and content experience without framing those changes around brand safety, then building better ad products on top of that (and benefitting from it), is a wise approach. In fact, it may be X’s best path to rebuilding/retooling its ads business.
